Monday, March 21, 2016

Join
us to examine the threats faced by the world’s second most diverse group of animals

On May 22–24, 2016 the
Bailey-Matthews National Shell Museum on Sanibel Island, Florida, will host a conference devoted to the threats to the second most diverse group of animals on Earth.

The 2.5 day Mollusks
in Peril forum will bring together the country’s foremost experts on
current large-scale threats to molluscan populations to discuss, through
presentations and panels, the challenges facing mollusks.

As our planet is subjected to unprecedented
rates of human-induced environmental change, populations of mollusks inhabiting
a wide range of habitats are being exposed to exceptional amounts of ecological
stress. These stressors include, but are not limited to, alterations caused by
climate change and other large-scale environmental disturbances.

Mollusks in Peril will facilitate an in-depth conversation on the
possible ecological drivers of extinction risk, the synergies that enhance
ecological stress, and the taxonomy, ontogeny, and geography of change in and
risk to marine, freshwater, and terrestrial mollusks. Join the forum to discuss
the results of pertinent research on the effects of large-scale change on
mollusks.

More information? Check the forum’s web site www.mollusksinperil.org for more information and updates. See you on
Sanibel in 2016!

Wednesday, February 17, 2016

For the fourth installment of our updates on the status of the Hawaiian land snail fauna
we discuss the Hawaiian families in the superfamily Punctoidea: Punctidae (Fig 1A) and
Endodontidae
(Fig 1C, D). Previously we reported on some of the smallest Hawaiian
snails, the minute (<4 mm in shell height) Pupillidae, but these
snails are not the smallest in the Hawaiian Islands. Punctidae are
commonly called “dot snails” because many are about 1 mm in shell
diameter, resembling little dots. They have a Holarctic distribution but with only one
currently recognized monotypic genus in Hawaii. But as we have seen, land snails
globally, and particularly in Hawaii, are ripe with cryptic species and the Hawaiian
Punctidae may harbor as many as nine undescribed species in the Bishop Museum
Malacology collection (Solem 1983). Their relationship to the majority of other
pulmonates remains uncertain, but in their phylogenetics analyses Wade et al (2006)
recovered a well supported clade containing the Charopidae, Otoconchidae and
Punctidae. Based on our recent surveys and preliminary molecular analyses,
we have three native punctids and a nonnative species that had been previously mistaken to be a Hawaiian punctid, Paralaoma servilis (Fig 1B; Christensen et al. 2012). Most of these species
were recorded in high elevation forests but in low densities (<5 individuals at a given
site). Due to their size, these snails are often difficult to find and additional surveys and
assessments need to be made to update their taxonomy, distributions and conservation
status.

The Endodontidae, endemic and highly diverse in the Pacific islands, are restricted to
Polynesia, Lau Archipelago, and Palau (Solem 1976, 1990). In Hawaii, there are 33
recognized species with more than 200 undescribed taxa in the Bishop Museum
Malacology collection (Solem 1990). Endodontids have been thought of as the most
primitive 'higher' pulmonates (clade Sigmurethra) based on morphology (Solem 1983,
Tillier 1989), leading Bouchet & Rocroi (2005) to place them with the Punctidae in the
sigmurethran superfamily Punctoidea. However, they were not included in the molecular
analyses of Wade et al (2006), who found no support for this hypothesis (sensu
Bouchet & Rocroi 2005).

Endodontids are highly threatened (Solem 1990, Sartori et al 2013, 2014) and in
Hawaii, all but three species are likely extinct. Solem (1990) reported that no liveEndodonta were collected on the main Hawaiian Islands since 1940 and the only
species left in this genus is on Nihoa along with a Cookeconcha species. He reported a
few Cookeconcha individuals alive in 1962 and M. Hadfield found only a couple in the
1980s, both in the Waianae Mountains of Oahu. Solem concluded that all low and midelevation
species, which accounts for the majority of the diversity, were extinct by 1960
and the remaining (< 5%) are confined in high elevation refugia. Meyer (2006) reported
the rediscovery of a remnant population of Coohkeconcha in the Waianae Mountains of
Oahu. Our recent surveys, have confirmed the persistence, although in small
populations, of Endodonta sp. on Nihoa and two Cookeconcha spp. (Waianae
Mountains, Oahu). Unfortunately, the Cookeconcha species reported from Nihoa in the
1980s was not found (Conant et al. 1983).

Unlike the highly endangered Amastridae and Achatinellinae, there are currently no
captive rearing efforts for the remaining Hawaiian Endodontids. Unless there are
management plans in place to protect these remaining species, this family will likely be
extirpated from Hawaii in the next decade, and we will have lost another of these
evolutionary treasures. Along with them go the stories they tell about the history of
these islands and the fauna that have come to inhabit them.

About Me

I am the Chair of the Department of Biology and Chemistry at Morehead State University and have been studying the systematic relationships of freshwater mollusks for over 20 years. I am currently managing the American Malacological Society's Molluscan Musings which features various topics on systematics and biodiversity of mollusks. I will be contributing and coordinating activity on these blogs including inviting guest contributors. Thanks for checking it out.